25th March Crane Day

Crane Day (Trandagen) is a traditional holiday that is still celebrated in some parts of Sweden on March 25. It is believed that around this date cranes return to Sweden from their wintering grounds; thus, Crane Day symbolises the end of winter and the beginning of spring.

Cranes are not common birds in Australia and when we think of Australian Cranes, we are more likely to be talking about brolgas.

The brolga is a bird in the crane family. It has also been given the name Australian crane, a term coined in 1865 by well-known ornithologist John Gould in his Birds of Australia.

Brolgas can be found across tropical northern Australia, throughout Queensland and in parts of western Victoria, central NSW and south-east South Australia. They feed and breed in open wetlands, coastal mudflats and irrigated croplands, occasionally visiting estuaries and mangrove creeks.

The Australian population of Brolgas is considered ‘secure’, with somewhere between 20,000 to 100,000 birds in northern Australia. But the southern population – estimated at 1,000 birds – is dwindling, and the species is listed as vulnerable in NSW, South Australia and Victoria.

Brolgas are best known for their intricate and ritualised dance. Partners begin by picking up grass, tossing it into the air and catching it again in their beaks. The birds then jump up to a metre in the air with their wings outstretched, before performing an elaborate display of head-bobbing, wing-beating, strutting and bowing. Occasionally they stop to trumpet loudly – a spectacular sound!

It is hard to find books about brolgas so any research students want to do will probably be done on line, but it is a good time to revisit Rod Clement's classic Olga the Brolga.

There are other books in the library about cranes though. I have a student who is fascinated by them and reads whatever I can feed him. Surprisingly, his favourite is Lotus and Feather, but he is particularly interested in the natural environment and justice and extremely empathetic for such a young child. He's currently working his way through the books in the library that have a UN sustainability goal sticker affixed to them.

Try these:

• Hello I'm Here by Helen Frost & Rick Lieder

Follow a newborn sandhill crane as it takes its first steps into the world. Will my legs hold me? What if I fall? Peek in as a sandhill crane hatchling makes its first wobbly stand and takes its first steps alongside its brother.

• Utterly Lovely One by Mary Murphy

So opens a glorious praise song from a parent crane to her little cranelet -- drawing many other species into the circle of love as she sings. Warm, funny, and full of energy and affection.

• Crane & Crane by Linda Joy Singleton & Richard Smythe

A sandhill crane lifts a stick. A construction crane lifts a log. The two cranes grab, stretch, and stack, working through bad weather and difficult obstacles toward their end goal: building a home for a new family. Told in a simple sequence of verbs, this colorful picture book demonstrates how the mechanical world mirrors the natural world. 

• How Do You Do? by Larissa Theule & Gianna Marino 

Water Buffalo and Crane's field is dry, empty, and hot--so hot that they can barely think of anything else. Every day is the same . . . Until one day, they hear something new. This beautiful story is about widening your horizons and making new friends.

• Lotus and Feather  by Ji-Li Jiang & Julie Downing 

Inspired by the true story of a crane that rescued a Chinese village, and graced with sensitive watercolor illustrations, this lovely book about respecting nature offers deep emotion and delightful surprises. 

• Grandfather's Dream  by Holly Keller

The Vietnam war is over, and Grandfather and young Nam dream that the new dikes will restore the wetlands, bringing home the beautiful cranes that once filled the winter sky. But other villagers think that growing rice is a more practical use for the land. 

• The Crane Wife  by Odds Bodkin & Gennady Spirin

When Osamu, a lonely sail maker, nurses an injured crane one blustery night, he never suspects that this simple act of kindness will change his life forever. 
This retelling of a traditional Japanese folktale teaches readers young or old a lesson about life and love. 

Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Pu4YtQs080

• The Crane Girl by Curtis Manley & Lin Wang

A boy helps an injured crane, that then returns in human form to weave silk and save the boy and his father from poverty. Adapted from Japanese folktales and told in alternating prose and haiku.

• Crane Boy  by Diana Cohn & You Landowne

In this empowering picture book about arts, activism, and the environment, Kinga and his classmates create a dance to honour the cranes of Bhutan and raise awareness of their plight.

• Lord of the Cranes  by Kirsten Chen & Jian Jang Chen

In an uplifting folktale of virtue rewarded, Tian, the Lord of the Cranes, comes down from his home in the clouds to test the people, but when only Wang the innkeeper passes the test, Tian rewards him with a gift that brings him fame and fortune. 

• Luck by Jean Craighead George & Wendell Minor

After a girl saves his life, Luck, a young sandhill crane, begins the long migration north to Siberia with his parents. Luck and his parents use a special song to find one another: Crackaarr! While his parents depend on rivers, lakes, and mountains to guide their way, Luck memorises man-made objects -- windmills, sunglasses, and a baby carriage.

• The Heron and the Crane by John Yeoman and Quentin Blake

Crane is lonely at his end of the swamp. Heron lives on the other side, and Crane decides that they would be perfect for each other. However Heron isn't sure she agrees. Proposals and rejections, arguments and reconciliations - will Heron and Crane ever come together and overcome their differences? 

• The White Crane  by Junko Morimoto

An old childless Japanese couple unexpectedly acquire a daughter after they rescue a lovely white crane trapped in a forest during a storm.

Long out of print, if your library doesn't have a copy, there is a lovely reading on Youtube.

Part 1  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqESisE4H1Y

Part 2  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAwxgGtV3MM

And although these are about paper (origami) cranes they are worth searching out as they show how important cranes are in some cultures.

• The Tree of Cranes  by Allen Say

• The Paper Crane  by Molly Bang

And of course there's the fables:

• The Peacock and the Crane

• The Wolf and the Crane

• The Geese and the Cranes

• The Farmer and the Cranes 

which made me also think of the fables with storks, but I now know that cranes and storks are not the same or from the same family so I haven't listed them.

23rd May World Turtle Day

It’s easy to get confused between a tortoise and turtle. The main difference between the two is that turtles sometimes live in the water, while tortoises only live on the land. Turtles live up to the age of 40 and have streamlined and mostly flat shells. On the other hand, tortoises can live up to 300 years and they have larger, more domed shells. You will mostly find turtles in the sea, while tortoises inhabit dense jungles and grasslands. Turtles and tortoises are two different animals but this day is dedicated to celebrating and protecting both.

I have written about this day before here and here, but in our school library this is a day when no matter what I put on display, the books all seem to get borrowed. This topic is nearly as popular as polar bears and pandas so the library has a number of fiction and nonfiction titles. See my Pinterest page. The book pictured A Turtle's View of the Ocean Blue  by Catherine Barr and Brendan Kearney is truly inspiring and fairly new so if you are short of turtle books, consider this one. The day after Turtle Day Lindsay Moore's new book, Yoshi and the Ocean will be released. It is based on a real turtle who was released from captivity in South Africa, but then was tracked travelling thousands of miles. What amazing creatures turtles are!

If tortoises are of more interest, two must reads are Jean Craighead George's  Galapagos George (also based on a real creature) or Paul Geraghty's Tortuga are worth hunting for in a library.

 

18th March

Now for the rest of yesterday's birthdays.

Wendell Minor is an American illustrator whose style of illustration is often larger than life, but so realistic that you also feel as if you are there having the experience depicted. In his new book where the illustrations accompany the words of the Gordon Titcomb song, The Last Train, you feel as if you are on the train or watching it across a field. His books that accompany Jean Craighead George's closely observed nature texts also bring you up close to the animals. See The Last Polar Bear; Snow Bear and The Wolves Are Back. Other books where Wendell has brought experience to life are Buzz Aldrin's Reach For the Sky and Look to the Stars.

Patrick McDonnell is an American cartoonist with a very successful comic strip about a dog called Mutts, but I first met his work when I bought his picture book Art and was enamoured of both the text and art. It too is cartoony, but it has Pollock-type artwork and Harold of purple crayon fame type imagination and makes a fun book about a small boy named Art. Recently I read about Patrick's new book to be released in April. Called Me...Jane, it is a biography of Jane Goodall and her gorillas. I can't wait to see it.

And lastly, Keith Baker who is also an American illustrator. I do not know his birth date, but I do know I love his illustrations and cannot wait to have fun with L M N O Peas and Potato Joe when Kindergarten are doing food. His other books are just as special and lend themselves to maths activities, units of enquiry or simply literature response. The Magic Fan has a text, art and paper engineering to elicit extensive discussion and given the recent tsunami in Japan it is extremely pertinent.

2nd July Jean Craighead George (1919 - 2012)

Jean Craighead George is the author of the well-known award-winning novels My Side of the Mountain and Julie of the Wolves, but the children I teach know her for her picture books that also deal with the natural environment. On her website she says, " I write for children. Children are still in love with the wonders of nature, and I am too. So I tell stories about a boy and a falcon, a girl and an elegant wolf pack, about owls, weasels, foxes, prairie dogs, the alpine tundra, the tropical rainforest. And when the telling is done, I hope they will want to protect all the beautiful creatures and places."

The picture books that Jean has done with the illustrator Wendell Minor give children a beautiful insight into nature and they allow Australian children to visit environments that they may never visit as they are so far away. She seems particularly fond of the northern tundra and the animals that share their living spaces with the Inuit people.

27th February is Polar Bear Day!

I don't know who decided that 27th February is Polar Bear Day, but I don't need an excuse to celebrate polar bears using literature. Of course it is probably more pertinent to study polar bears in the Northern Hemisphere where you are much more likely to see a polar bear, even if it is only in a zoo, but with global warming and the shrinking of the ice caps, it is important that children read about animals that are at risk. Polar bears are special and the quality of children's books about them make them even more special.

To date there was always Liliana Stafford's Snow Bear, Nicola Davies' Ice Bear, and Sally Grindley's Polar Star, but then last year I added the Hatkoff's Knut and Christa Holtei's Nanuk Flies Home to the library.

Shopping for the library at the beginning of this year though, I found a plethora of new titles that were published in 2009 and these you have to see for the sheer brilliance of the illustrations:

* The Last Polar Bear by Jean Craighead George and Wendell Minor

This story is idealistic and improbable but touching and message-laden. It has beautiful illustrations and some very interesting vocabulary such as 'flailing' and 'squall'.

* Big Bear Little Brother by Carl Norac and Kristin Oftedal

This story too, is about a small boy befriending a polar bear but here the relationship is playful and protective. Norwegian Oftedal's illustrations capture the vastness and coldness of the setting while still showing the warmth and exuberance of the c

hild and bear's relationship. This story doesn't deal necessarily with the plight of polar bears.

* My Little Polar Bear by Claudia Rueda

This story has a very simple text and is designed for very young readers but it is beautiful. Colombian Rueda's combination of blue and white text and illustration begs you to touch it and makes the relationship between mother and cub so poignant. there is a little 'sparkle' which will make it easy to sell to children.

And lastly, not for its illustrations but for the concept and the information on polar bears...

Once I Was a Cardboard Box...But Now I'm a Book About Polar Bears by Anton Poitier and Melvyn Evans (Five Mile Press).